Friday, September 30, 2011

Tomorrow is IMBA's International Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day. This day celebrates the life of Jack Doub,an avid teenage mountain biker from North Carolina who had a true passion for the sport from an early age but passed away in 2002. Mountain bike clubs and other organizations all over the world will be having events to get kids out on bikes, and to "share the love of pedaling with someone smaller than you." Here in Charlotte, we will be hosting one of these events.

Our local clubs the Tarheel Trailblazers and the Dirt Divas along with REI and Trips For Kids will be hosting our own event on one of our local trails. Tomorrow morning we'll head out to Colonel Francis Beatty Park at 8:00 a.m. to meet up with tons of mountain bikers big and small to ride through the woods, socialize, and have a cookout. If you're local to the area, come on out and support us. We'll need volunteers to ride with the kids and to help them tackle all the features on the trail.

This is way bigger than our usual kids rides. This is the third year in a row that we've teamed up with REI and Trips for Kids, and it has turned out to be an awesome event. I've said it before (and I'll say it again), getting the little ones out on the trail is the greatest thing in the world. These kids really are our future, so we've got to make sure they fall in love with this sport like we have. If you're outside of the local area, you can probably still find an event to attend.

Check out your local mountain bike club, or go to IMBA and look for an event near you. I hope to see you there!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

I love bikes. You know that. I ride most any type of pedal-powered devices: mountain bikes, road bikes, and unicycles. There's one kind of riding that I just can't seem to get into...cyclocross.

For those of you that don't know, cyclocross is a little different. The race course are short, and can consist of pavement, trails, grass, and mud. Riders do multiple laps and have to dismount and jump over obstacles while they navigate the course. The bikes are a little different too. They resemble road bikes, but with their cantilever brakes and knobby tires, they seem to be suited for this type of riding. Here is an example of a cyclocross bike:

It is very spectator friendly, and I've been to quite a few races just to watch. I just don't see why they do it though. I know a lot of my cycling friends ride cyclocross (CX.) I've talked to some of you, and I still don't get it. Sure, it's great way to train, and riding more when it gets cold outside is probably not a bad thing. One of my biggest issues as a Clydesdale is the fact that in the offseason I tend to ride less and drink more beer. Maybe CX wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I'll probably attend a few local CX races when I find out about them to cheer on my cycling pals. I mean, who the hell wouldn't want to miss something like this?

Wait a minute...that was funny. I love to have horrendous crashes, and it looks like the possibility is high in CX. It would be good for the blog. You don't actually need to have a specific bike for this kind of racing. I hear that you can use a mountain bike. Shit. What am I doing? Did I just talk myself into actually trying this crazy stuff? I know D-Wayne would probably try to convince me to do it. Damn it.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

It's been raining here...a lot. Other than the Cackalacky Cup Saturday night, I haven't had much bike time. I even took a few days off for the specific purpose to ride bikes somewhere, and the rain shit all over my plans. Forgive me for being a little whiny, but yeah, this sucks.

Last Thursday, Little Miss Sunshine and I took a trip to the mountains. The plan was to hang out and enjoy a nice relaxing day off, and that's just what we did. We had considered bringing our bikes, but ended up without them. That's okay, because I knew for sure I would get to ride my bike the next day. Here was our destination for the day:

Mount Mitchell. At 6,684 feet, it is the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River. That's one place I hadn't been since we moved here, and it was nice to finally get there. A few years ago, Little Miss Sunshine, The Dirty Party Cycle, and myself climbed to the top of Grandfather Mountain (5,964 ft), and it was hard work. The hiking trails are pretty rugged, but the views were well worth the effort. With Mount Mitchell, you could just drive right to the top. It was way too easy.

With hardly any effort, we were way up in the sky. We could see all around, and it felt like we were on top of the world (on this side of the world anyway.) I really enjoyed the view.

It was very nice, and we spent a little time up there. Being from Florida, I can't get enough of these mountains. Being a cyclist though, I wanted more. I wanted to ride my bike around there...anywhere. We drove around a bit on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and stopped to look at the mountain that we just uh, climbed.

All that beautiful land was begging me to ride on it. There were a few options, I knew of at least two. The first, would be to ride my mountain bike up Curtis Creek. I've ridden in the area last summer when we all went to Kitsuma, but I didn't make it over to the other side. Since I've never been there, I was a little worried about doing it all by my lonesome. I needed someone to show me the way, but I didn't want to wait for that. I had the next day off and I couldn't wait to return to Mount Mitchell on two wheels. This presented a problem if I wanted to round up a guide. I didn't know anyone that could ride with me at the last minute, so I started thinking about a different kind of ride up there.

When we were driving back down the mountain and on the Parkway, I thought about my road bike. Sure, roadie shit is boring. but riding up in the clouds sounded like a nice treat. The distance didn't seem too bad, but it was steep as hell. Little Miss Sunshine didn't even bat an eye when I mentioned it, since she knew that there was no way to stop me. I had to do something on a bike near Mount Mitchell, and I may have found it...or so I thought.

A road ride, with a crazy climb. It was pretty much all climbing from the town of Marion to the top of Mount Mitchell, but I wasn't worried. I thought "If I got tired and couldn't make it, I could just turn around and coast back to my truck." Sounded like a "good enough" plan to me. On the way back to Charlotte I called the MadSS, who told me that he had ridden that particular route in the past. I told him I was thinking about it.

"It's a nice ride, and it's only 28 miles."

That didn't sound too bad, but I think I misunderstood him. Only 28 miles round trip sounded do-able, even if half of it was climbing. On the drive home, I proceed to inform Little Miss Sunshine that I would be attempting this madness.

"Be careful, and don't get dead", she said.

When I got home, I got on The Google and looked at the route. I was wrong. It was 28 miles ONE WAY. Oh yeah, all of that was steep climbing, with a shitload of switchbacks. I wasn't deterred, since I still had my strategy of turning around if I couldn't make it. The goal of reaching the summit of Mount Mitchell under my own power would be my motivation, and for some reason I thought I could do it.

The next morning I woke up at 6:00, and made sure Lunchbox got off to school. I looked outside and it was pouring rain. Shit. I checked the weather around Mount Mitchell and they were getting it worse than we were. I don't mind riding in the rain, but trying some roadie death march in a monsoon sounded way too dangerous. I took my ass back to bed. Ride fail.

Will I still try it? By golly you betcha. I should probably hurry up though, since it will be winter around these parts soon. In fact, it's a lot colder at the top of Mount Mitchell even in the summer, so I need to get crackin'. I don't want to wait until the spring cause well, I may forget about this whole crazy idea. I guess that could be a good thing. That way I won't die. Going out on a road bike is not the way to do it, that's for sure.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Oops, I must have had a computer error. I meant that I would be back Tuesday. After having an extra long weekend, I should have plenty to talk about. The major this going on over the weekend was the Cackalacky Cup up at Lake Norman State Park. It was an eight hour and twenty minute night race, but I didn’t go there to race. It was a fundraiser for our local club, the Tarheel Trailblazers, so I decided to volunteer my Bike Patrol Services.

I don’t ride up there much due to the distance from my house, but I do enjoy the few times I get to go. This is one of those trails that you never get to ride at night, so I knew that I was in for a treat. As long as no one got hurt, I could ride around all night and enjoy the peace and quiet of the night. I had to wait for the race to start first, and then I could get out on the trail.

The race started Lemans style, which mean that the racers had to take a little jog through the parking lot before the hopped on their bikes.

I spotted my pal the MadSS doing his best Bruce Jenner impression:

I also saw my friends Billy and Mr. Ryde, and they were discussing the benefits of riding on a 29er (Billy really likes big wheels.)

After a little while, I took off. The plan was to ride until I found a few “Oh Shit” spots, and camp out there in case something happened. Those spots were usually determined when I had one of my own “Oh Shit” moments. I had fun riding, and really enjoyed being out on the trail in the dark. While I was waiting, I turned off my bike and helmet light and used my flashlight to check for critters.

Nothing…just me and the trail.

Wait, I think I spotted my bike out there.

Anyway, I rode most of the night, and didn’t have to patch up anyone. If there were any kind of medical needs, those guys must have toughed it out. I didn’t use so much as a band aid. That’s a good thing though.

When the sun came up, the race was over. It just started raining at that moment, and then breakfast was served. I got in over twenty miles, which wasn’t nearly as much as the racers out there. I was still hungry though.

After breakfast, it was time to honor the podium finishers. A quick peek at the prize table revealed something very familiar.

Yep, the good people at Backcountry Research provided some sponsorship love to the race, in the form of Awesome Straps and the brand spankin’ new Tulbag. I was very happy to see such Awesome love. Big thanks to them for supporting our local scene. I tried my best to tell everyone out there the joys of the Awesome Strap, since I was sporting two on my bike.

As for the podium, my buddy the MadSS got the top spot.

He rode all night on a singlespeed, and put in more miles than anyone. It was a tough course, and I was happy to see my friend get a win.

I had a lot of fun out there, and I’m actually glad I didn’t race. It’s nice to just help out once in a while, instead of trying so hard to be a racer boi. I might do it next year, but I’m not certain. I can’t even figure out what I want to do tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Day three of reporting on the Urban Assault Ride, but I promise this is the last of it. It’s time for the video, because well, I’m pretty much done talking about the event. I finally sat down at went through all of the footage on my GoPro, and I must say that it was a pain in the ass. After looking at almost two hours of video, I was able to edit it down to about ten minutes. I know most people don’t have an attention span that long, but I feel like I caught the most important stuff from the ride, uh, I mean race. I couldn’t get it any shorter than that.

I covered most of the route, and all of the checkpoints. I’m no Steven Spielberg, but I think it came out okay. I worked hard on the editing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a blockbuster.

If you look closely, you’ll see Dicky, Little Miss Sunshine, and Lunchbox (and of course my teammate the Dirty Party Cycle.) If you’re not one of the people I mentioned and you participated in the ride, you still might see yourself in there too. I’ll make you famous on the Internets.

Watch it now:

By the way, we ended up 34th out of close to 100 teams in our class. Not to shabby for a couple of mountain bikers that don’t know the big city all that well. I wish next year would hurry up and get here so we can do it again.

You will have to wait too. I have the next two days off, so that means no blogging. Maybe Mr. Shepherd will step in and catch us up with his racing adventures down in the Sunshine State, or maybe he won’t. Otherwise, I’ll be back here on Monday. See y’all then.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Well, as best as I can remember anyway. I did drink a lot of beer afterwards, and hopefully didn’t kill any of the brain cells that are responsible for my recollection of the Urban Assault Ride. The day started off early, with nice cool temps. The Dirty Party Cycle met us at the house, and we headed down to my place of employment. I didn’t have to work, but the race venue was only a few blocks away so it made sense from a parking standpoint. There were tons of people already milling about when we got there.

A lot of them were dressed “creatively.”

After we checked in, we were told to set up our bikes along the fence somewhere. We found a spot near the exit so we could easily find them in the sea of people.

We were to head out in three waves, and the DPC and I were in the first one due to our super smarty-pants score on the quiz. All that stood between us and the first checkpoint was some pennant flagging.

We were off. We navigated through the herd of racers and found our trusty steeds. I was having fun already.

It was off to the first “mystery checkpoint”, which wasn’t really a mystery thanks to a clue given before the race. We took a few pre-planned shortcuts to get there, and when we arrived we were handed a package of beef jerky. Also, they showed us a photo which would be the clue for the second mystery checkpoint.

Was that a smile from a dinosaur statue? We had no clue what the hell it was, so I took a photo and decided that we could figure it out later. It was on to the next checkpoint, the Common Market (just a few blocks away.) Of course we took a few more shortcuts, beating the crowd that had just left the mystery checkpoint.

We got to the Common Market and were greeted with a line out front waiting for the challenge. Some people made that their first stop, so it was a little busy. It didn’t take long though, and before we knew it we were putting together a puzzle made out of foam bricks with the Clif Bar logo on it. After a little digging around, we found a missing piece and placed everything on a giant flying disc. After raising it above our heads (well, the DPC’s head because I’m much taller than him), we collected our bead for that checkpoint and were on our way.

We flew down the road, trying to avoid any traffic or being followed by anyone that didn’t know where they were going. After trying to take a shortcut to avoid a traffic light, we found ourselves having to catch up to the people that were waiting patiently at the traffic light. Shortcut fail.

We hauled ass down the road, passing lots of people. We took another pre-planned shortcut, and arrived well ahead of the group we passed. Next stop, the Smelly Cat Café for some big wheel riding.

Not big wheels as in 29er, but big wheels as in what we used to ride when we were kids. The line was short, so we hopped on the next available three-wheeled toys and made our way around a small course. It was fun, and I pulled off a few power slides along the way. I wanted to stay there and do it again, but we had places to go. We grabbed out bead and headed out again. Three checkpoints down, four to go.

We still had no idea where the second mystery checkpoint was, so we continued along our planned route and headed to Ray’s Splash Planet. It was a long ride along some busy streets (but not the off-limit ones), but a few short cuts through parking lots and such put us way ahead of our expected time. After arriving at the next checkpoint, I was surprised to see what the challenge was. Last year people had to slide down a water slide. This year, we were outside in a field. We saw lots of BMX-sized wheels with pegs on them, and we were instructed to use the wheel for a human wheelbarrow challenge. Challenge accepted.

The DPC was the wheelbarrow, and I was the pusher. We had to weave in and out of some strategically placed cones, and try to avoid those that were not as experienced in the art of human wheelbarrowing. We were just naturals, I guess. We collected our bead, but I was worried about the second mystery checkpoint. I gave Lunchbox a call and asked if he heard any chatter about what it might be, and he said no. Shit. I don’t know the inner workings of the city like a lot of folks around here do, but I was certain that it was located somewhere in the heart of the city.

We rode a little bit and I decided to pull over and use The Google to see if it would be any help. After striking out multiple times, and I finally decided to ask the next person that pulled up beside us.

Me: “Excuse me. Do you know where the second mystery checkpoint is?”

Random Dude: “Yeah, but we haven’t been there yet.”

That’s all I needed to know. I hear someone else ask him, but I didn’t really hear the answer. I told the DPC to follow that team, and we we got close we would know it. We ended up cutting through the NFL stadium, and probably ruined a lot of people’s tailgating experience with our big wheels and bell ringing. After a small shortcut, I saw lots of cyclists converging on one area in the heart of the city. The DPC saw it too, and we headed that way.

This was it. Not even close to a dinosaur. I guess I should get out more and experience the city life. They asked us for our beef jerky package, and I asked if I was supposed to eat it. The lady said no. They only need to see it to prove that you actually went to the first mystery checkpoint. We collected our next bead and headed on to the 6th checkpoint.

The second mystery checkpoint didn’t throw us off of our pre-planned route too bad, so we were pretty happy about that. After nearly colliding with a few automobiles (NFL game day around here is pretty busy), we cut through some neighborhoods and made our way to the Park Road Shopping Center, home of Bike Source (our next checkpoint.)

When we got there we were greeted with BMX bikes, and were instructed to have one person ride the bike while the other sat on the handlebars and collected flags. It was way too easy, and we got our bead rather quickly and headed out. A few more pre-planned cut throughs put us on a fast track to the final checkpoint, the Mint Museum.

We got there via our super-secret way (it was located on a street that was off-limits), and made our way to the front for the challenge. This time, one of us had to put on shoes tied together with an inner tube, and shoot other shoes (like a slingshot) into a bag held onto by the other teammate. It looked easy, but as the shooter, I fired the first shoe about twenty feet over the DPC’s head. The second one was aimed squarely at his head (not on purpose), and eventually we got them in the bag and grabbed our bead. That was it, and we were heading for the home stretch.

After crossing the street and cutting through a parking lot, I heard a loud clunking sound coming from my bike. I stopped for a second and found that my headset had worked itself loose (I had just cleaned and greased it the day before.) The DPC said, “We have tools, do you want to fix it?” I said, “Hell no, we ain’t stopping now!” We cut through all the back roads we knew, and got to the finish line lickety-split. We got to the park and found an obstacle course waiting for us.

The last thing we had to do was turn in our beads.

We headed right to the tent to clain our beer tokens, and commenced to drinking. I had no idea where we finished, but we did beat our goal of under two hours. That was good enough for me, but we probably could have finished a little quicker if we didn’t waste so much time trying to figure out where the second mystery checkpoint was. Also, we could have ridden a little faster if we had road bikes, but mountain bikes made it so much more fun. Half of the shortcuts we did wouldn’t have been possible on skinny tires anyway. It's not like we were taking it that seriously. I was only serious about drinking beer after riding my bike, which is par for the course for me.

It was an awesome event. We need more stuff like this around here. I saw all kinds of cyclists together that I wouldn’t normally see, and it made me feel good that we have a strong scene here in Charlotte. Lot of miles were ridden, lots of beers consumed, and lots of fun was had by all. I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Oh yeah, my GoPro ran the entire time we rode, so I have video of everything. It’s gonna take a while to edit it down to a watchable size, but when I do I’ll get it up here. From what I’ve watched so far, it looks pretty good. Almost like I was there.

Monday, September 19, 2011

I failed. Not on the Urban Assault Ride, but at the afterparty. After getting tons of beer tokens donated to me from various sources, I ended up leaving there with one unused one. I drank a shitload of beer, but I probably could have had one more.

The Dirty Party Cycle and I set a goal of two hours (for the race, not the beer-drinking), and I’m proud to say we came in under that. We laughed, we hauled ass, and had a lot of fun. It wasn’t good enough for the win, but that wasn’t why we were there.

Yes, beer, but I also didn’t want to miss the chance to attend a spontaneous party with bonus dancing on the stage.

And yeah, who wouldn’t want to hang out with Internets celebrity Rich Dillen. I’m sure he was hoping that George wouldn’t notice that he didn’t get the memo to wear his Bike29 shirt. Tsk tsk.

I have a lot of stuff to cover from the “race”, plus a lot of GoPro footage to go through. I guess tomorrow will be more of an Urban Assault Ride recap. We pretty much closed the place down, and the details are a bit fuzzy. It’s a good thing that Lunchbox was out there taking pictures, because some of that shit I didn’t remember at all.

Taking a pre-race quiz, looking for mystery checkpoints, riding close to 20 miles, and drinking lots of beer has taken its toll on me. It was mostly the beer though, because that’s what I’m feeling right now. I should have taken the day off. See y’all tomorrow.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Yeah, that’s what I always talk about around here. So, what’s different this time? Sunday is the 2nd annual (for Charlotte anyway) Urban Assault Ride from New Belgium Brewing. I didn’t do it last year, and I had all but talked myself out of it this year. Things have changed though.

It’s a little on the pricey side, and I just couldn’t see myself spending that much money on a “race.” I talked myself out of it last year for that very reason, and pretty much did the same thing this year. The original plan was to team up with The Chili Man, but I eventually decided that I didn’t want to come up with that much cash. After watching most of my cycling people around here (including Little Miss Sunshine) sign up for it, I started to have some regrets. The Dirty Party Cycle heard my bitching and had the same reasons for not participating, so I never asked him about it this year. Besides, I had already asked The Chili Man (and then I backed out due to the cost.) I know, the proceeds are going to a good cause, but I guess I wasn’t thinking about that.

I found out a little while ago that the DPC was interested, but I had already decided not to do it. Before I even had a chance to recommend him teaming up with The Chili Man (who probably still wanted to do it), he forked over the cash and team B-43 was all signed up. I couldn’t believe it. I guess he decided to take action, and wasn’t worried about me saying no since fees were paid and I had no other excuse. With only a few days until the event, we had to come up with a plan.

I’ll tell you a little bit about the ride/race. It’s basically a bicycle scavenger hunt around town (in this case, Charlotte.) Teams consisting of two people roam around the city to find checkpoints, which are local establishments that we should all know and love. When you reach a checkpoint it will have some kind of obstacle or other adventure, then you hop back on the bikes and find the next one. We can hit them in any order, and take pretty much any route we want (other than a few roads that have been named “off-limits”.) When we cross the finish line, there’s a big party waiting with lots of New Belgium beer. Sounds like a winner, right?

We started planning our route by exchanging e-mails and a few phone calls. We’re looking at about 20 miles or so, but there’s a twist. There are five checkpoints listed on the website, but there are two “mystery” checkpoints that haven’t been revealed yet. Well, a clue to the first one has been given, so we have to figure it out. Any plans we make can be ruined by the placements of these mystery checkpoints, so that adds to the challenge. We don’t know the city as well as some people do, but we should do okay. The main goal is to have fun, and of course drink a shitload of beer when we finish. That pretty much sounds like any race I do. Just to be sure it’s like any of my other races, I’ll be sure to start out really fast and burn out after the first mile or so.

Plans have been made, but I won’t share them here in case any of you locals are reading this. We have a good idea of where we’re going and how we’ll get there, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve. In case I drink too much beer and forget what we did, I plan on running my GoPro during the event. We’ll probably get lost a few times, but that’s all part of it. Hopefully I’ll be back on Monday with a report, unless the DPC and I are still wandering around in the city. There is a high probability of that, you know.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

I’m busy. Way too busy to be on here posting a bunch of nonsense. I’m busy with other nonsense, if you must know. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Let’s just say that I’ve been looking for things, and planning for other things. It may be interesting, but most likely it will be about the same as usual around here.

Since I won’t be blessing you with my words, I’ll give you something else. Yes, another video. This is from my trip to Bent Creek a little while back. It’s the last of the footage I had from my GoPro, so I thought I should put it on the Internets. It’s from what I think is the best trail out there at Bent Creek, a little gem called Green’s Lick. The trail is fun, super fast, pucker your asshole kinda downhill. You go a lot faster than you want to on this section of singletrack goodness. The danger factor and penalty for failure is pretty high; just the way I like it.

The first park of the video is the trail, followed by a fast, smooth fireroad descent. Even though it’s fireroad, the loose gravel combined with excess speed can be tricky. I dig that. I also went in a different direction with the music, using a little Flogging Molly. Enjoy.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I’m talking about Interbike. The biggest bicycle show around is going on right now, and I’m sitting here feeling left out. I can peruse the Internets and follow Twitter for up to the minute coverage, but it’s not the same. Being somewhat of a bicycle geek, I should be one of the many in attendance. Hell, after years of hemming and hawing, Dicky is even going this year. I feel uh, dejected.

I’ve never been to Las Vegas, and I’m not really that keen on going there for the usual reasons. If I want to lose my ass trying to gamble, I could head to the mountains and give the Cherokee Tribe my hard-earned dough. Since I’m married, I have no need for the high-priced call girl services available at the many fine establishments out there. I just want to go see new bike stuff. I could also go see my long lost brother out there, since he lives nearby. I haven’t seen him since we were kids, and it would probably be nice if I went to visit.

Back to Interbike. They don’t just let anyone in that place. You have to be “in the industry”, or know someone who is. Being a half-assed famous blogger on the Internets just won’t cut it. I have an ace up my sleeve though. I know lots of people. I thought about begging George or one of my local shops for a hookup, but I didn’t want to stoop to that level. I did mention that I was interested in going to one of my bike industry friends last week, and I didn’t think anything of it. I wasn’t trying to get him to sneak me in or anything; I was just wishing him luck on the unveiling of some new products (more on that another day.) Not long after my well-wishing though, he sent me a message stating that he would get me in if I could get a flight out to Vegas. Shit. I couldn’t believe it. I would finally be able to see some of the cool stuff at Interbike.

Immediately I started looking into flights and hotel rooms. I was surprised how how cheap that stuff was, and I was ready to pull the trigger. I would need to rent a car though, so I could at least drive down and see my brother for a short visit. The trip cost was adding up, but money wasn’t the issue. My schedule was. Being stuck on standby status for work, and not enough notice to take vacation days, I started thinking about being uh, “sick.” With so many people on vacation though, I didn’t think I could pull it off. After a few days of deep thought, I decided to pass. I told my friend that I would plan on it next year.

Do I regret my decision? A little. I would love to go out there and see what the Almighty Bike Creators have to offer, but the timing just wasn’t right. Had I known that I would get a way in, I would have planned a little better. Lesson learned. I guess I could have my own Shiny New Bike Shit Show, but it just won’t be the same. I don’t really have anything new anyway...except for this little trinket:

This is a new co2 cartridge from Genuine Innovations. It’s a tad bit bigger (20 grams) than the normal sized ones (16 grams), and they say it will actually inflate a 29er tire all the way (or as much as I would need anyway.) I found a few, so I snatched them up. If I can get away with only carrying one cartridge on my rides, then I will be happy. I don’t really want to test one out, since they are kinda expensive. I might as well throw my wallet out on the trail. Hopefully it will work when I need it.

Up next is a photo of the new bike mount for my phone.

Not too shabby, and it does the job. It’s currently mounted on my road bike, and it seems pretty secure. I ran over some bumps and other associated rough shit, but only on the road. It held up fine, but the real test will be when I put in on my mountain bike. I’ll try it, and hopefully won’t lose my expensive phone out on the trail. I guess the worst fear would be if I crashed. I don’t plan on doing that. I can’t plan for shit though.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

It was that kind of day here in Charlotte. Pretty blue skies, moderate temperatures, and a little bit of free time. I was on call all weekend for work, but I had to get out and ride. Saturday they pretty much worked me to death, but for some reason they left me alone on Sunday. After getting in a road ride, it was time to take the kids out on the trail. I had a backup plan for the Kids Ride in place in case work called again, but I didn’t need it. I met up with Lunchbox, Little Miss Sunshine, and the rest of the Kids Ride crew at Sherman Branch.

We had a smaller group, but we still planned on having big fun. Now that my race season is pretty much over, I’m free on Sundays. That means we can make the Kids Rides a little more “regular.” We’ll keep them going until it gets too cold outside. You know, when winter starts rearing it’s ugly head.

Weather wasn’t a problem on Sunday though. It was a bit warm when we started at 1:00 p.m., but it was nice and cool in the woods. We did our usual route, but we moved along pretty quickly due to the size of our group. I did manage to squeeze out a few photos though.

That was pretty much it. Like I said, we were moving along. The ride was over before we knew it, but the kids had fun. I actually rode my singlespeed, and didn’t really have any issues pushing my 32X18 along at such slow speeds. I told y’all I planned on taking out the singlespeed a lot more, so it’s a start I guess. There may be a singlespeed only event for me on the horizon too, so I should probably get used to riding it. More on that later.

Short post today, I know. Go find something else to do with the rest of your day.